


don’t get too close, it’s dark inside

by badboy_fangirl



Category: Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-16
Updated: 2014-02-16
Packaged: 2018-01-12 15:27:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 478
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1190220
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/badboy_fangirl/pseuds/badboy_fangirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Stefan's voice is even softer when he tries to explain what happened, how Katherine deceived them all, how she broke Damon's heart, and how in turn, Damon broke all of their hearts, and now, now they don't know if they can ever get him back.</p>
            </blockquote>





	don’t get too close, it’s dark inside

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the ficathon at [fluffyfrolicker's](http://fluffyfrolicker.livejournal.com/43271.html) livejournal. Title lifted from Imagine Dragons' "Demons."
> 
> Post 5x13, unspecified future in which Elena is back in control of her body, but Damon is not.

There is just blank space, when Stefan says, _it's been weeks, Elena, you've been gone for weeks_. His brow is so furrowed, she can only hear Damon's voice in her head making jokes about it, but Damon's not there, and panic sets in, and she just looks around wildly for him, but.

He's not there.

Stefan's voice is even softer when he tries to explain what happened, how Katherine deceived them all, how she broke Damon's heart, and how in turn, Damon broke all of their hearts, and now, now they don't know if they can ever get him back.

He's tied up in the cellar like a rabid dog, and he actually growls and snaps his teeth at her when she looks in through the bars.

 _He's not himself_ , Stefan says.

All Elena feels is rage. Not at Wes for infecting him, not at Katherine for telling him just what he always thought anyway, but the anger that flows through her is just for him, for Damon, for accepting it, for believing something so ludicrous, and then for doing what he did, being what he is, and ending up here.

She screams at him through the door, and beats on it with both hands until they are bruised and swollen. _How could you think I would ever say that? Or feel that? How can you not know how much I love you? How did you not know I was gone? How, how, how?_

She sobs and shrieks and ends up a crumpled pile of flesh at the foot of the door. After a while, Stefan tries to tug her back up the stairs.

She won't go. She pushes him away. She says, _I'm staying_.

So, he sits with her in the dark, shadowed hallway, and later, when her voice comes back, and her hands have healed, and her tears have dried, she half-smiles at him.

_We did this once. Damon and me. We sat here, for you. Together, because of you._

On the other side of the door, she hears Damon clear his throat and sniff. The sound of his shirt rubbing against his stubbled cheek reminds her that of all the vampire senses, the hearing is the worst, because no matter where she goes in this house, she'll be able to hear every movement he makes.

If she wants to get away, she has to leave. So, in the morning, when she wakes up with the cement floor indented on her cheek, she gets up and walks out.

She does what he did when he believed the worst.

She does the only thing she can do, knowing he can't be saved this time.

As she steps off the edge of the porch, she hears him whisper, _I'm sorry, Elena_.

He's said it to her before, and he's meant it before, but this time, it's the truth.


End file.
